


red.

by oiru



Series: honey and love songs. [3]
Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-09
Updated: 2018-12-09
Packaged: 2019-09-14 20:35:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16919943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oiru/pseuds/oiru
Summary: guess it's time to spit out these candies. because, well, sugar rush is over, this one doesn't really have a happy ending.





	red.

**Author's Note:**

> guess it's time to spit out these candies. because, well, sugar rush is over, this one doesn't really have a happy ending.

josh's hair changes with every season.  
tyler says that it looks and tastes like cherry juice and fresh blood on his cracked lips.  
josh tells him that the bathwater in his tub ran all ruby-red.

red days are when the wolves howl all night and in the morning the birds return with torn out feathers. the days are filled with ambulance sirens. everything moves in slow motion. the flames, the heat, their bodies soaked in kerosene. the screams in the distance.  
josh says that his weather has the perfect condition for wildfires.  
all tyler could think was, _how fitting._

josh's hair is on fire.  
josh's hair _is_ fire.  
fire that swallowed tyler whole.  
tyler says that he is the one who scars his throat.  
josh tells him that this will not end delicately.

***

tyler is not just writing about breaking glass, he is actually slamming doors. he is playing with knives for a pastime. learning that being brave & having no fear are nowhere close to the same thing. one means he is living in spite of being scared; the other means he is looking death in the face & laughing, wildly. tyler is threatening to ski down active volcanoes & this is only partly a metaphor. that place fear used to live inside of him has broken windows in its house, sleeps without locking the door.  
tyler says that the love poems aren’t rolling off the tip of his tongue any- more  
josh tells him that his mouth doesn’t know how to curl around all that softness now.

***

so tonight tyler is burying the ashes of josh under a bed of roses. he didn’t go up in  
the flames, only his name did. only the bridge he was supposed to meet tyler on did. so maybe the flames kept tyler warmer than he ever did. and maybe he can’t keep blaming josh's home state for that.  
josh says maybe he never wanted to be the muse.  
tyler tells him that he just fit the description so well.

so tonight tyler is emptying out spice containers, covering his palms in cayenne pepper and lemon zest, anything that will taste like an afterthought of josh. tyler speaks his forgiveness into existence, baptizes himself in cold air until his skin feels raw. his heart walks around the house with wet shoulders, develops a hacking cough that keeps him up half the night. this year is ending like a wasteland. everything still and silent. they’ve let this place turn into a ghost town and tyler is humming like neon.  
he is forgetting the sound of josh's voice.  
but he'll always remember what his face looked like when tyler got pulled under the water.

so tyler is coughing up blood and calling it his namesake. pouring salt in an open wound just to feel something again. this is life when all the trees are dying, all the sap draining out. he's got cobwebs where his mouth should be  
so he says not to expect him to spin josh love stories any time soon.  
josh tells him that he would give tyler his heart that's if he had one.

***

and tyler is screaming. for a home. for the fire. for the lack of anything.  
and the sky is screaming back.  
_no mercy for the wicked. isn't it what you wanted?_  
and tyler is searching. for a home. for the fire. for anything worth saving.

josh says that he has fallen in love a thousand times, mostly with burning things down.

tyler tells him that he'll learn how to sleep without setting his own bed on fire first.


End file.
